Donald McCain: 101 and counting....

Donald McCain / Donald McCain / 27 January 2012 / Leave a Comment

Peddlers Cross looks set to go straight to Cheltenham for the Arkle Trophy

"There only seemed to be two suitable races that fitted in the timescale available to us and neither would be ideal. I don’t think Warwick would suit him especially well and the other option at Kelso might mean having to run on ground that would be more demanding than I would want so close to the Festival......"

Donald reached a personal best when recording his 101st winner of the campaign in the week and there is plenty of cause for optimism in the coming months.

It was great to get to the century of winners up at Haydock last weekend on a cracking day for the team and Chester Lad's win at Newcastle on Thursday took us to our best ever total.

There have been a couple of Grade 1 winners amongst them which always helps - it makes you realise you are doing something right - but the horses have been running well all winter and breaking our personal best has to go down as the highlight of the season, especially as we are still in January.

It's all about building on that going forward but we have lots of very nice young horses here now and the quality continues to rise. As I said, the wins of Overturn and Hollow Tree were significant but increasing the strength in depth is the key as we go on.

I couldn't be happier with the way things have gone so far though and long may it continue.

Looking ahead to the remainder of the season, it looks like we will have our strongest team ever for the Cheltenham Festival. There's still plenty of time so it is hard to have too many plans set in stone but, touch wood, we will be heading south with plenty of live chances.

Obviously there has been plenty said about Peddlers Cross after Kempton but I can give you the latest on him and it all seems to be very positive.

He seems very happy in himself and he is back on the road and working very nicely. Having weighed up the options, I would think it is highly likely that he will now go straight to the Arkle.

There only seemed to be two suitable races that fitted in the timescale available to us and neither would be ideal. I don't think Warwick would suit him especially well and the other option at Kelso might mean having to run on ground that would be more demanding than I would want so close to the Festival.

He's got enough experience over fences as far as I am concerned and the main thing now is to have him absolutely spot on for the day that matters.